Recent years have seen an exponential increase in the use and construction of the World Wide Web (WWW) system. A drastic increase in traffic over the web resulting from the addition of web sites and expansion of the user base has resulted in extended response times when documents, graphics or other files are retrieved from remote server sites for viewing at a client site. Reasons for the increase in response times include a lack of network bandwidth and an inability of popular web servers to keep up with client requests. Internet Service Provides (ISPs) and Network Service Providers (NSPs) have been increasing network bandwidth in an attempt to accommodate increased web usage, but new services such as audio and video over the Internet can easily consume any capacity expansion as it is brought online.
Server capacity limits can be improved through the addition of more servers at the same site, but this solution places additional strain on the ISP supplying the Internet feed. A traffic bottleneck will always exist if a substantial number of client requests are directed to one popular site. Therefore, a method for distributing popular web site information throughout the Internet so that a client can obtain desired information from a neighborhood server rather than from a remote web site, thereby avoiding making use of congested Internet pathways is desired.